Plenty to play for ahead of potential US rate hike in December

The labour market data has the greatest influence on the Fed’s decision making and this data continues to point towards a hike in interest rates by the end of the year.

On a three month moving average basis, payrolls are rising at just shy of 200k per month and while the unemployment rate rose to 5%, this was on the back of another rise in the participation rate.

Overall, this was not an especially strong report, but not weak enough to kill off a December rate hike. With an election and two further payroll reports before the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting, there is still plenty to play for.

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